186 The Metallurgical Industry of Cleveland. [April, 



there can be no doubt that tbe village system would be very econo- 

 mical, in fact just as reasonably so as tbe present asylums are scan- 

 dalously expensive when their expenditure is contrasted with their 

 results. 



The old notions concerning the origin and nature of insanity are 

 rapidly going out of fashion, and it is ceasing to be considered a 

 disease of the mind per se. This change of belief implies no irre- 

 verence towards God's special providence, but a growing opinion 

 that many peculiarities of modern civilization are sufficiently anta- 

 gonistic to the laws of nature to render unstable that normal balance 

 between the mind and the body which almost invariably exists in 

 savage nations. Providing that the body is well nourished and the 

 brain well worked, there appears to be no increase of mental aliena- 

 tion in spite of mercantile disaster and political changes. Let long 

 years of unrequited toil, insufficient and improper nourishment, be 

 passed amongst all that degrades humanity, and the improperly 

 educated brain will become unhinged by an unusual series of exer- 

 tions. Civilized poverty is the hotbed of insanity and of a type 

 which is singularly irremediable. It follows that whilst moral ma- 

 nagement may be necessary for some lunatics, a special physical 

 treatment which must bear a definite reference to the constitutional 

 causes of the ailment is absolutely required for the majority. This 

 method of treatment cannot be obtained under the present system 

 of seclusion in asylums where the success in re-establishing reason 

 is not greater than it was when all the horrors of the madhouse 

 were in full force, but it may be successfully carried out under an 

 intelligent supervision, adapted to the village and cottage system 

 foreshadowed by the insane colony of Gheel. 



III. THE METALLUKGICAL INDUSTEY OF 

 CLEVELAND. 



Throughout the whole history of applied science and the metal- 

 lurgy arts there is probably nothing which can at all compare 

 with the condition of things now prevailing in Cleveland. In the 

 more limited acceptation of the term, Cleveland is, strictly speaking, 

 but a small portion of the North Eiding of Yorkshire, — probably 

 about one-third of it ; but, from the fact that the staple industry is 

 the same throughout a large part of Teesdale and South Durham 

 as in Cleveland proper, the term has now popularly acquired a 

 more extended signification. Within a very limited area of the 

 district referred to, the last twenty years have seen an industrial 

 development which has no equal, either in ancient or in modern 



